Good year for Lyon

LAST year was a good one for cargo business at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport in France, thanks to additional Emirates SkyCargo capacity.

Philippe Bernard, chief executive of Aéroports de Lyon, reports that its cargo business saw outstanding, double-digit growth of 26.5 per cent in 2013, with 42,159 tonnes transported.

The upwards trend at the Rhône-Alpes region airport continued into the first quarter of 2014, with 11,222 tonnes transported – a 13.6 per cent increase.

The improvements, he notes, have been inspired by two key factors: increased bellyhold capacity on the five-times-a-week Emirates flight to Dubai – which switched from an A340 to a B777, giving an increase in capacity of approximately 10 tonnes – and the weekly freighter service operated by SkyCargo.

Express shipments reached 8,405 tonnes in the first quarter, marking a 1.2 per cent increase over the same period in 2013.